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Reading for Pleasure News – May

#ReadingIs personal. For Holly, reading is a temporary, safe diversion from her everyday life. Explore ideas for developing your knowledge of children’s reading practices to uncover your readers’ interests and motivations.

News

Spark! Blog Blitz of tips now live

The Spark! School Book Awards has released the first in its ‘Blog Blitz’ series - a sequence of blogs throughout this term from panelists and guests, packed with tips and ideas for engaging students and enjoying the Spark! School Book Awards texts. The first, ‘Five Ways to Engage with the Spark!’ by school librarian Rebecca Rouillard, is now available.

Hurry! June conference tickets selling fast!

Tickets to our summer conference in Milton Keynes are still available to book, but are selling fast! Guest speakers Jon Biddle and Onalji Rauf are joining us for this inspiring event focused on ‘Book Blether: Sharing the Pleasure Together’. We will explore research-informed practice and rich ideas and it’s only £40! Check out the full programme.

OU Reading Schools Programme briefings for 23/24

Is RfP a priority in your primary or secondary school? Would you like to find out how year-long support from the OU Team can enable your school to build a reading culture? Join us with your Headteacher/ KS3 lead, to find out more/ On 17 May (4pm) primary or 18 May KS3 briefing (4pm).

‘Beyond the Secret Garden’ event with Darren Chetty

We hope you will join us for this FREE Centre for Literacy and Social Justice seminar on 24th May at 3pm. Writer and teacher Darren Chetty will be focusing on race, gender and class through childhood as represented in contemporary children’s literature.

World Book Day/ EmpathyLab event May 16

What is the connection between RfP and empathy? Why not attend this online event on Tuesday, 16th May from 6.30-7.30pm with our own Teresa Cremin, and Jon Biddle and A. M. Dassu to explore how empathy, as a core life skill, can be developed and honed through RfP.

St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature

The 1st Children’s Literature Festival in Cornwall launches on 17^th June! The aim is to inspire a community that embraces RfP and come together- connecting authors with readers. £1 tickets are available with partners Reading Rocks giving £1 off books from the Festival Bookshop for every ticket exchanged.

Author in the Spotlight: Anna James

May’s Author in the Spotlight is writer and journalist, Anna James. Before writing the brilliant Pages & Co. series, Anna was a secondary school librarian for 5 years, Book News Editor at The Bookseller magazine and Literary Editor of Elle UK.

May Top Texts

This month’s Poetry Top Texts are brought to you by Julie Blake, co-director of Poetry by Heart, the national poetry speaking competition for schools. She researches and writes about the history of poetry for children and creates digital and print anthologies of poems for children and young people.

OU Reading Schools Programme Update

In the busy-ness of bringing about change and putting plans into effect, it is important to look up and take notice. What difference is all this activity making? Subject leaders within the Reading Schools Programme have been reflecting on the impact of their most successful strategies and asking ‘What difference can I see? What’s my evidence?’

OU/UKLA Teacher Reading Groups

How wonderful to see so many of our dedicated Teacher Reading Group leaders at our termly TRG Leaders’ CPD event in May. We enjoyed hearing from Teresa Cremin about links between RfP and well-being and sharing ideas on how to maintain momentum into the new academic year. Find details about your local TRG here.

Nottingham TRG Update: Amy Greatrex and Julie Doyle

At our recent meeting, Nottingham TRG members shared their graphic novel recommendations for all year groups. The children are leading us to notice they are interested in this genre and it’s our role to pursue this and provide ‘texts that tempt,’ valuing the contribution of this form to rich RfP experiences.

Burley Woodhead English Hub TRG Update: Sarah Scott

From classic texts and teacher favourites to book award winners, it is always wonderful to hear our TRG colleagues speak so passionately about their recommendations and the impact that they have had, not only on their own reading, but also on the pupils they have shared these texts with.

Featured Examples of Practice

This month’s Examples of Practice feature two teachers in Yorkshire. Read on to hear how Ellie and Helen have been building a culture of RfP in their schools.

Reading Ambassadors by Helen Dearing

Deputy Headteacher Helen Dearing of Wilsden Primary in Bradford shares how the school developed the role of Reading Ambassadors, ensuring that every class had a passion for reading. Read this to find out how Wilsden staff place children at the centre of the RfP conversation.

Building Book Blether by Ellie Keown

Year 2 teacher, Ellie Keown of Greystones Primary in Sheffield, wanted to make more time and space for children to explore, enjoy and blether about books together. Find out how her class reading scrapbook helped stimulate book talk and recommendations.

Research

Book Language and Its Implications for Children’s Language, Literacy, and Development

We know fiction fuels imaginations, but this paper digs deeper, exploring how book language provides opportunities for learning words and syntactic constructions that are rarely encountered in speech. A rich read by Kate Nation, Nicola Dawson and Yaling Hsaio.

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Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies
The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA

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